myUTSAUTSA TodayVisitDirectorySearch
myUTSAUTSA TodayVisitDirectorySearch

UTSA College of EngineeringUTSA College of Engineering

  • About CoE
    • Dean’s Message
    • Calendar
    • News & Announcements
    • Faculty & Staff
      • Business Service Center
      • College of Engineering Organizational Chart
      • Research Support
      • Resources for Faculty
        • Policies
        • Forms
        • College Committees
    • Accreditation
    • Visit Us
    • Contact
  • Students
    • Tech Symposium
  • Research
    • Centers
    • Facilities
  • Undergraduate
    • Overview
    • Admissions
    • Advising Center
    • Degrees Offered
    • Forms
    • Resources
    • Scholarships
      • Other Scholarships
    • Student Success Center
  • Graduate
    • Overview
    • Admissions
    • Certificate Program
    • Master’s Degrees
    • Doctoral Degrees
    • Graduate Scholarships
      • Other Scholarships
    • Resources
  • Departments
    • Biomedical
    • Chemical
    • Civil & Environmental
    • Electrical & Computer
    • Mechanical
  • Advisory Council
    • Advisory Council News and Announcements
    • Advisory Council Leadership: Fast Facts
    • Advisory Council Service Expectations
    • Advisory Council Bylaws
    • Advisory Council Minutes
 December 10, 2019

UTSA wins $3M NASA award to launch extreme environments center

UTSA wins $3M NASA award to launch extreme environments center

by UTSA CoE / Wednesday, 31 July 2019 / Published in COE Announcements, Mechanical Announcements, Mechanical Engineering, News, UTSA COE

(July 31, 2019) – UTSA, a public university that is nationally recognized for research excellence, will receive $3 million dollars from NASA to develop a new interdisciplinary Center for Advanced Measurements in Extreme Environments (CAMEE).

Climate change has created extreme environmental conditions such as ocean and polar warming, and sea ice reduction. Severe weather including stronger hurricanes, sweeping forest fires, destructive tornadoes, heat waves and droughts are now more common place. Recently, soaring temperature advisories were in effect for nearly 200 million people in some of the most densely populated parts of the country, including many areas not familiar with extreme heat.

To investigate these extreme conditions, NASA and UTSA will collaborate to push the boundaries of current measurement and modeling technology by conducting research in harsh and extreme environments. They will also study the challenging conditions produced when travelling at hypersonic speeds.

“It’s urgent that measurement technologies be developed for these challenging settings to understand the physical nature of these extreme environments, and to improve our ability to predict their behavior through simulations,” said Hongjie Xie, professor and interim chair in the UTSA Department of Geological Sciences. Xie, a remote sensing scientist, leads a team of five UTSA professors who will lend expertise to CAMEE.

The other four team members include Christopher Combs, a Dee Howard Endowed assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, who will investigate how the extreme hypersonic flow conditions experienced during atmospheric reentry will impact the design of NASA flight vehicles. Associate Professor and Associate Fellow in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astraunatics, Kiran Bhaganagar, will provide expertise on fluid dynamics, turbulence and other computational models. The team is completed by sea ice specialist Stephen Ackley and oceanographer Alberto Mestas-Nunez, who was one of the developers of ArcCI—an open source web-based dashboard to track sea ice changes in the Arctic Ocean. As it evolves, CAMEE will also welcome UTSA collaborators from other academic disciplines.

“What we have in common are harsh environments where all these measurements are made, but it’s really hard to make a measurement because the conditions are so extreme,” said Combs. “Whether it’s hypersonics, where everything is incredibly hot and you have plasma and disassociated air, or the polar ice caps, where everything is frozen and you have to do things remotely, we have similar challenges.”

CAMEE’s research focus areas will include: 

  • Polar Sea Ice and Sea Level Rise
  • Gulf of Mexico and Polar Oceans
  • Atmospheric Science and Extreme Events
  • Aerodynamics
  • Modeling, Simulation, and Big Data

“We are measuring and studying extreme conditions in the entire earth system including the atmosphere, the ocean, and sea ice. This is one novelty of this new center,” said Bhaganagar. 

The UTSA center will enhance NASA’s efforts to develop a diverse workforce in earth system sciences, remote sensing technologies, computational fluid dynamics, and experimental fluid mechanics in support of NASA’s Science, Aeronautics, and Space Technology Mission Directorates. The UTSA team also anticipates training 64 highly skilled professionals in STEM disciplines to support NASA’s mission.

CAMEE participants will enroll in summer internships at three NASA centers – the Goddard Space Flight Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Langley Research Center.  Hands-on workshops will be offered to K-12 teachers to further develop an interest in earth system science, measurement, and data analytics among the next generation. The center will also create several experiential learning opportunities for UTSA students, providing them with unique training to pursue new career opportunities.

UTSA will also collaborate with the Alamo Colleges District, which will provide an additional pool of students to help with recruitment efforts, and the Dee Howard Foundation, which will also assist with local K-12 outreach activities.

Additionally, CAMEE will include academic partners from the University of Colorado, Boulder and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) who will provide expertise in atmospheric sciences to tackle large scale phenomena such as how high-velocity Santa Ana winds are generated which can lead to massive forest fires. Other research collaborations will include Southwest Research Institute, Texas Space Grant Consortium and the US National Ice Center.

“One of the end goals of the center is to add to the Nation’s research capability in earth system science research and education,” said sea ice specialist Ackley.

In addition to helping solve grand challenges posed by extreme environments, the UTSA researchers believe that advanced measurement techniques could lead to breakthroughs in data acquisition for the similarly extreme environments experienced by extra-terrestrial surfaces during atmospheric entry of NASA’s space exploration efforts.  

By leveraging recent advances in measurement technology, UTSA, NASA and the other collaborating institutional organizations will develop novel diagnostic techniques that will drive discovery and improve the ability to operate in extreme environments across a wide range of measurement scales.

– Milady Nazir

Categories

  • Archived Graduate Scholarships
  • Archived Undergraduate Scholarships
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • COE Announcements
  • Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • General
  • Highlights
  • Home Slider
  • Innovation Magazine
  • Mechanical Announcements
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • News
  • Photo & Video Gallery
  • Uncategorized
  • Unused Sliders
  • UTSA COE

Upcoming Events

No event found!

Recent Posts

  • New Employee – Carlos Velez

     ...
  • New Employee – Desmond Graham

     ...
  • Faculty Spotlight – Lyle Hood

     ...
  • Staff Spotlight: Monica Casanova

     ...
  • Researchers’ nanodisk could restore function for Lou Gehrig’s disease patients

     ...

Archives

  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • April 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • April 2010

College of Engineering
BSE Building, Room 2.106
One UTSA Circle
San Antonio, TX 78249
Phone: 210-458-4490
Fax: 210-458-5515

Contact Engineering Webmaster
College of Engineering Employment

UTSA Mission
The University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property – for Texas, the nation and the world.

UTSA Vision
To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.

© 2017 The University of Texas at San Antonio | One UTSA Circle San Antonio, TX 78249 | Information 210-458-4011
Campus Alerts | Jobs | Required Links | Policies | UT System | Report Fraud
Produced by University Communications and Marketing

TOP